San Juanito
Last night I took myself to see the movie Little, and yikes, was it bad. A solid C might seem generous compared to how much I kind of tore it apart -- except that I did also note its genuinely winning performances. It had very good acting in it. That results in a dissonant effect, though, when terrible writing is performed well.
I'm just glad I saw this using a monthly subscription to AMC. The amount of money I spent on movies this month is the same whether I saw Little or not. Otherwise it would have been a complete waste of money. It could still be argued it was a complete waste of time. The movie's MetaScore of 49 is itself almost too generous, but set squarely in their "mixed or average reviews" category. That was about to be expected.
Anyway. I rode my bike home and then, after a quick dinner of leftover sambar and rice, I took the bus back downtown, making it to the 5:40 showing at about 5:43. I used the bathroom and was in the theatre while trailers were still going. I almost wish I missed part of the movie.
The bus times weren't working with me afterward so I walked home. I wrote the review. I called to leave Sherri a Happy Birthday voicemail, figuring she was out for dinner for her birthday. There were some photos of her posted to Facebook last night, so it was pretty clear she had gone out with several people -- including both my sisters. I was in bed not long after that. I actually tried to read my book for a bit but I literally got two pages read before I zonked out. This seems to be the problem whenever I try reading in bed, and it truly doesn't matter what the book is.
I got into work slightly later than usual today because, even though I was otherwise ready to leave at 6:41 this morning, I hung around so I could be poised and ready at my computer for the 7 am release of new vehicle reservation space on the Washington State Ferry from Anacortes to San Juan Island Saturday morning at 9:30. I realized too late how quickly those spots sell out, but apparently they keep space set aside for release two months, two weeks, and two days prior to departure date. I only figured this out when the two-day window was my only option.
After losing out in a very similar scenario trying to get a free pass for boat rental at the Center for Wooden Boats through the Seattle Public Library -- I just wasn't quick enough with my fingers and too many other people were also poised at the read at the release time -- I was relieved I actually got through this morning. The last time I looked, both the 8:30 and the 9:30 am ferries were all booked; someone on the 8:30 ferry must have canceled their reservation because even before 7:00 this morning that ferry had space available again. But, Anacortes is a 90-minute drive from here, and the reservation info strongly suggests getting in line at the terminal 45-60 minutes before departure time, as you have to get through the toll booth at minimum 30 minutes early or else you get relegated to standby. So, making it to the 9:30 ferry will be challenge enough, and I figure at the latest we'll want to head out of town by 7:00 Saturday morning, if not earlier.
After that 9:30 ferry, there isn't another one that sails all the way to San Juan Island until 1:55. And we want to make a day trip of this. I had hoped to visit all the islands that ferries go to, and this was hard to figure out as the departures and arrivals are sporadic and inconsistent between one island and another throughout the day. The way I see it now, we'll spend about an hour on San Juan Island, and then at 11:35 we'll depart eastbound -- and, technically, we will go to each island with a ferry stop; we just won't have time to get off the boat at Shaw Island and Orcas Island (and we visited Orcas Island already once anyway, with Andrea in 2010 (you won't see any of the photos of Andrea in that set unless you're a Flickr user marked as "friends and family", as she got upset years ago about my having public photos of her online). That boat stops at Lopez Island, though, on which we have about two hours before catching the 3:05 ferry, which takes 40 minutes to get . . . oh, shit. Wait a minute. I just noticed this! That 3:05 ferry leaving Lopez Island is on Sundays and holidays only. Fuck! So, the only way to include Lopez Island in this way is if we stay on Lopez for four hours before catching the next ferry to Anacortes out, which is not until 5 pm. That doesn't seem all that realistic.
The next-best option, it appears, is to catch the Eastbound ferry off San Juan Island at 4:15 -- five and a half hours after arriving there -- that goes directly back to Anacortes without only a quick stop on Lopez Island in between. Otherwise, we get way too little time either on San Juan Island (one hour) or on Lopez Island (a little over one hour). That's a little pointless, isn't it? Gah! This is all way too complicated. It probably is simpler just to go for the four-hour visit to San Juan Island, not worry about any of the other islands at all, and come straight back.
I spent a lot of time this morning trying to figure this out. Because you see, for any ferry leaving San Juan Island that goes all the way to Anacortes -- and only some of them do -- that also requires a reservation. At first I reserved the 1:55 ferry leaving San Juan Island, but then I decided that cuts the time on San Juan Island a little too short as well -- if you cut out the hour or so we want to be in line before the ferry departs, even that only gives us two and a half hours to explore the island. It's got two or three parks on it, and 20 miles of road from end to end. I suppose if we find ourselves bored quickly (which I doubt), we can attempt standby for the 1:55 ferry. But we clearly should have a reservation for one of them, and the 4:15 ferry seems the most sensible to me.
And if my original plan of taking the San Juan Island Clipper direct from Seattle had actually panned out, we would have been stuck on the island for at least five hours then as well. So that part isn't actually much of a deviation.
[posted 12:18 pm]